Hot lunches, warm memories: Stasiks has been Midland fixture for some 70 years

matthew woods mwoods@mdn.net

Updated 4:30 am, Monday, January 18, 2016

Photo: Erin Kirkland/Midland Daily News

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Stasiks Market has been in operation for some 70 years in Midland.

Stasiks Market has been in operation for some 70 years in Midland.

Photo: Erin Kirkland/Midland Daily News

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Katherine 'Kay' Stasik runs the family corner store, Stasiks Market, which has been in operation for some 70 years.

Katherine 'Kay' Stasik runs the family corner store, Stasiks Market, which has been in operation for some 70 years.

Photo: Brittney Lohmiller/Midland Daily News

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Stasiks Market in Midland in the 1940s.

Stasiks Market in Midland in the 1940s.

Photo: Photo Courtesy Of Stasik Family

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Hot lunches, warm memories: Stasiks has been Midland fixture for some 70 years

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A generation ago, corner stores were a staple in just about every town. Fewer and fewer of these operations are still in existence today and chances are, ownership has changed hands more than once.

But that is not the case with Stasiks Market, located at 3302 Bay City Road in Midland. The former meat market, now run as a party store with a hot lunch service five days a week, has been in operation for over seven decades.

“It’s been over 70 years,” said Kay Stasik, owner and operator of the market.

The business was started by Walter Stasik, who ran it along with his wife, Helen, and their sons Art and Robert.

As with many family businesses that have been around for generations, the math is a bit fuzzy on when things officially started. But Kay Stasik said the Midland business has been around since the early 1940s. At one time there also was a Stasik Meat Market in Bay City.

“The boys had the (Midland) store together when Walt retired,” Kay Stasik said in a 1985 Daily News article. The brothers, who both went off to fight in World War II, returned to the store after the war.

Brother Robert married the former Miss Katherine Prindle in 1952. They had three daughters, Karen, Bobbi and Debbie. The couple took over full time operations of the business in 1973 after Robert’s brother, Art Stasik, passed away. Kay Stasik took over the store in 1985, after her husband died in April the year before. She has run it ever since, with a handful of employees, and some help from her daughters.

Back in the meat market days, Stasiks Market was popular for its meat counter, Polish sausage in particular.

“People just loved it,” daughter Debbie Jackson said. “It was one of the main reasons they came in here.” Jackson works on the weekends at the store, and her sister Bobbi Haines helps out as well. The meat counter was phased out sometime in the 1990s.

Although the homemade sausage has been gone for several years now, the crew at Stasiks say they still get the occasional request for the old-time favorite.

“Once in a while we get people in here asking for it,” long-time employee Kathie Ridenour said. “They say they had it a long time ago and happened to drive by so they stop to see if we still have it.”

Birthday girl

On a recent January day, Kay Stasik was busy running the counter of her store.

“Today is my birthday,” Stasik said.

Don’t dare ask her how old she is as she is not quick to give up her age.

“I’ll tell ya, but I don’t want you putting it in the paper,” she said, smiling. For the record, she looks much younger than she is, and is feisty as any young woman.

When asked why she was working on her special day, she was quick with an answer.

“What else would I be doing today,” she asked, putting her hands on her hips. “Why not? It gives me something to do.” Stasik works five days during the week, and often on Saturdays as well. Before her shift at the store, her birthday afternoon consisted of a dinner at Pi’s Restaurant, and a special dessert courtesy of daughter Debbie Jackson.

At a time when most people her age are long retired, Stasik said she is happy to still be able to work.

“I stay alive that way,” she said for her reason for still working.

In a past life, Stasik worked for 18 years for The Dow Chemical Co. She eventually retired, and made the market her full-time profession.

Not everything has been smooth sailing for the business or its owner, however.

Stasik was the victim of a robbery a dozen or so years ago, but even that did not keep her out of her store for long.

“They followed me home and knocked me over the head,” she said, swinging her hand down, mimicking the blow. “I woke up in the hospital.”

Two days later, she was back to work.

Daughter Jackson works on the weekends at the store. She said her mother has no intentions of retiring any time soon.

“She really likes being here and it is good for her,” she said. “She likes to be with the people, and it keeps her active.

“Yes, I think it is good for her to stay busy,” Haines added.

Family affair

The two sisters talked about their time working for their parents back in the day.

“This was my first job when I was 15,” Haines said, laughing. “I bagged groceries. I think I also ran the cash register at times.”

“My dad paid me 50 cents an hour. I think that’s why I didn’t work for him for too long,” Jackson added, laughing as well.

Outside of the family, Stasiks Market currently has two long-term employes.

Kathie Ridenour works weekdays, and prepares and stages the lunch service that is popular with many people along the Bay City Road corridor.

“I used to live around the corner when I was a little girl. I remember coming in here,” she said. Ridenour works the morning shifts, readying dishes like pepper steak, tuna casserole, “shipwreck stew,” and the hands-down fan favorite, grilled chicken fettuccine.

Ridenour has been with the market for just over eight years. She said Stasik has been a good boss and friend to her.

“Do you know she still drives herself?” she asked. “And she still does the grocery shopping.”

Ron Richter is the sole man who works at the market. He has been with the family business for over eight years. When asked what it was like to work for a family run business, he said he has had no issues.

“To tell you the truth, I don’t have any problems here,” he said. “Kay is a good boss.”

Richter serves all kinds of duties in the store.

“I am the security and the stocker. And I keep an eye on Kay,” he said, constantly looking toward the door and the counter when customers sound the door chimes.

As for his place in the hierarchy, he said he feels at home with the Stasik family.

“We are actually very tight,” he said. “I feel like I am the brother the girls never had.”

Aside from beverages, snacks and all the last minute items people may grab going to and from work, Stasiks offers hot lunch five days a week. Laborers, contractors and area employees make their way to the corner shop for hot lunches that go beyond the bevy of fast food offerings nearby. Lunch service runs from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m.

“They want to get in quick, get something good to eat, and get back to work,” Ridenour said. She said lunch traffic varies, depending on what jobs are being done in the area.

“If there is a big construction project, it can stay really busy in here for weeks,” she said. When work in the area is hopping, things can get busy quickly, as people rush inside in bursts, filling containers with their favorite dish.

One customer who stopped in for a soda said she has been coming to the corner store for many years.

“Oh my, I have been coming here since about 1979,” said Gloria Vinson of Midland. “I miss the meat counter, but I pop in here for all different things.”

She said she is happy to see the old store still in operation at a time when everything seems to belong to a chain or franchise.

“It’s really sad to see places like this go away,” she said. “We need more family oriented stores like this in Midland.”

Just a minute after 11 a.m., the door chimes, and a stream of hungry men make their way to the slow cookers, loaded with good eats. They joke with each other as they fill their white foam takeout containers with stews, pasta or some other savory creation.

Aaron Behnke of Midland met his girlfriend Sarah Granzo for lunch at Stasiks.

“I am in here about every day,” said Behnke, a Central Warehouse employee. “It’s good food. And I like the joint.”

The couple made the grilled chicken fettucini their choice for lunch.

“It is delicious,” Granzo added. “And the food it always different.”

Sub-contractor John Furlo of Midland said he grew up in the neighborhood. When work puts him in the area, he makes sure to stop by Stasiks for lunch.

“I would rather eat here because it keeps money local,” he said. “Places like this are what a small town is all about.” He added that his mother worked at the store when he was younger.

“They used to deliver groceries to your house,” he said. “I grew up coming in here.”

Joe Louis Jackson of Midland said trips to the store are part of his daily routine.

“I come here for the food and the convenience of the location,” he said as he paid for his selections. “And they have the best Swedish meatballs in town.”

Although the business model for Stasiks Market has changed over the years, what has remained the same is a family that loves their store, as well as the history that surrounds it. Daughters, along with their mother and her employees, laughed as they reminisced about the old days.

“I think my dad would be really pleased that we are still here,” Jackson said.